The document describes a land health surveillance framework to monitor and evaluate land degradation and agroforestry interventions. The framework uses a stratified, randomized sampling approach with sentinel sites, clusters, and plots to collect biophysical data on vegetation, soils, and carbon stocks. Field measurements include woody cover assessments, soil sampling, and allometric methods to estimate biomass and carbon. The goals are to establish baselines, monitor changes over time, target priority areas for interventions, and evaluate outcomes.

1. Field Measurement
Land Health Surveillance
•Identify where land problems exist
•Quantify major risks to land health
•Target agroforestry interventions
•Evaluate the outcomes of interventions

2. Field Measurement
Land Degradation
the
Surveillance Framework
Designed to provide;
 biophysical baselines at
landscape level
(vegetation, soil condition)
 a monitoring and evaluation
framework

3. Sentinel Site Surveillance
Framework
a spatially stratified,
hierarchical, randomized
sampling framework
Sentinel site (100 km2)
16 Clusters (1 km2)
10 Plots (1000 m2)
4 Sub-Plots (100 m2)

4. LDSF sampling plot (1000 m2)
 with sub-plots (100 m2)
•Fast
•Repeatable
•Functional, interpretable
•Applicable everywhere
•Widely tested
•With local communities

5. Shrub biovolume by block & cluster
UNEP-ICRAF West Africa Drylands Project

6. Intervention Targeting
Priority afforestation
intervention area (ha) based
on woody cover ratings for
each cluster (100 ha)
Clusters in red have high
priority due to high inherent
degradation risk
UNEP-ICRAF West Africa Drylands Project

7. Allometrics
•Biovolume to biomass to C
• Trees, shrubs, Species
• Belowground woody biomass
• Tapering coefficients; fractal
branching
•Infrared spectroscopy for wood
moisture and density
Improved wood density
databases
Protocols for local calibrations

8. Trace Gases
N2O emissions in AF systems with N-fixing trees
Sumatra
N2O(Kg-N ha-1 y-1)
Cleared
Forest Coffee Shade
land
Coffee

9. Trace Gas Measurements
Small chambers will
be used to measure
the fluxes of N2O, CO2
and CH4 to generate
default factors for
N2O and to estimate
the soil respiration
flux under different
land uses

10. Soils Measurement
Infrared Spectroscopy for rapid soil characterization
• Rapid
• Reproducible
• Low cost
• Predicts soil carbon
&functional soil
properties

11. Soil infrared spectroscopy labs
VNIR
Salien Sotuba
Tanzania Mali
FT-NIR
ICRAF
reference and
support lab
Nairobi
FT-MIR
Maputo Chitedze
Mozambique Malawi
Future
locations

12. Digital mapping of soil carbon
Local (site-level) Cref
10 km
UNEP-ICRAF West Africa Drylands Project

13. Test site – Western Kenya
Western Kenya Integrated Ecosystem Management Project

14. A Globally Integrated African Soil
Information Service
 Over the course of four years farmers, extension
services, planners, the private sector, policymakers and
scientists will have freely available, web-enabled access
to a globally integrated, evidence-based, and dynamic
soil health information service that provides
management, planning and policy-relevant soil
information for the non-desert portions of Sub-Saharan
Africa.
AfricaSoils.net
CIAT-TSBF, Earth Institute at Columbia University, World Agroforestry Centre, International Soil Reference
Information Centre
With support to CIAT-TSBF from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

15. Randomization of Sentinel Site locations
stratified by climate

16. Digital mapping of C (covariates, scales)